What do you do with your chickens????

[chickensbythesea]

Quote:
Meat, basically, is muscle. The more time it has to get used, the stronger it'll be, both in terms of tenderness and flavor. If you're only used to eating supermarket meat, you'd be unpleasantly surprised, more than likely, since those birds are weeks, not years, old. If you're prepared for it, they can still be eaten in any way you please, but you have to go in knowing it's a completely different eating experience.

 

[mstrrlm]

Quote:
Meat, basically, is muscle. The more time it has to get used, the stronger it'll be, both in terms of tenderness and flavor. If you're only used to eating supermarket meat, you'd be unpleasantly surprised, more than likely, since those birds are weeks, not years, old. If you're prepared for it, they can still be eaten in any way you please, but you have to go in knowing it's a completely different eating experience.

Cool thats what I kinda gathered but wanted to be sure. Thanks for the responses

 

[barbarajon]

My experience with chickens has helped us make an organized way of handling chicken. I keep my hens for at least 4 years as I have seen that my chicken do lay a good amount of eggs for at least 4 years. While cocks I keep them for not more than 2-3 years. To get tenderness you need to slay within 2 years and to get mass you need to slay in 4 years.

 

[m.kitchengirl]

As a local foods chef I have visited many farmers in the region & purchase farm raised meats exclusively. It gets VERY expensive, even with how little meat we eat.
I bought 6 hens in June. Mostly so my S.O. would let me get ducks. I never wanted chickens before & had a very cavalier attitude about the whole thing. I want to do meat birds, but wanted to make sure that I would enjoy husbandry and be a good owner, so I decided to start small this year.
I fell in love with the chickens. I read all the books and too many articles here before I got them and they are a fantastic pet. I tell all my friends they are the best 1st pet for kids, and I believe it.
To us, they have become pets. They all have names, but only answer to "Chicken Oh Chicken" (my ducks only answer to "Quackers" so I tell my S.O. "we only have two pets, not 12". If they had to be called individually they would be 12 pets. That is my chicken math.).
I bought 6 hens. Mostly because I was told some would die, and some could be roosters even if they were sold as hens.
Two are roosters. My favorite chicken is a rooster.
I don't have the time to add on to the coop and run, so I can't get 6 more hens to satisfy his "needs". Everyone says I need 10 hens to keep him from hurting the ladies. I wish I could do it, but we decided we wouldn't get into meat birds til next year.
That means this weekend I have to cull my favorite chicken, and the other rooster. I have thought through all my other options, but keep coming back to the same solution. If I post him on craigslist most likely he will be eaten, and who knows how humanely he will be treated before that happens, and during? If I house him with the girls he will overwork them & I will feel awful. I could send him elsewhere for processing but I love him too much to just drop him with a stranger & let them do it. He trusts me, runs to me first and is my buddy. If he is to be sacrificed I feel like it should be by my hand. I will be weeping the entire time. I may even puke. But I think I will sleep better that night than if I made any other choice.
When my hens stop laying well and the time comes to make room for the new gals I will keep any that are good broody hens, but I can't sustain freeloaders for too long. My property is not huge. It has a lot of good forage for the chickens but I don't think it could sustain more than a 25 or 30 birds total, and honestly, 30 birds sounds like an awful lot to me. I am not sure I could sustain that large of a flock.
I have to admit I regret my cavalier attitude when I started this. I thought I could remain objective, but I love animals too much. After months of thoughtful meditation I have decided that since I can't house my rooster(s) with the girls in a way I think would be humane for all that the most humane thing to do is slaughter them myself.
I have never killed anything. I was a vegetarian for 15 years, and we still only eat meat a few times a month. I slow down in the rain to try to avoid squashing frogs. I dread tomorrow morning more than anything, but sometimes what is right is really hard. I got into this to teach the kids where their food comes from, so the lessons begin. For all of us.

 

[brandislee]

I truly respect all those who plan to give their chickens a forever home. However, it's not something I could ever do (at least for an entire flock...). I am totally pragmatic by nature. And while I understand the statement that we feed our cats and dogs and they don't lay eggs, it's not entirely accurate. I mean no, my cats and dog don't lay eggs, but they are by no means freeloaders. My cats are expected to catch mice and other vermin, and if they fail to do so they will be re-homed. My dog is the closest we have to a freeloader- we had her before we moved to the farm, so she's a bit of a spoiled house dog, but even so she is an excellent alarm system and is great at protecting my kids and my birds (during the day... I really wish I could leave her outside at night, but not even I am that mean... not that it's mean to leave a dog outside, I just think it would be mean to take a dog who is accustomed to sleeping inside and push them out into the cruel MN winter night...).

There are a number of reasons I got chickens... but the first and foremost was as a food supply. I'm not going to use an arbitrary cutoff like 2 or 3 years, and I will keep them probably until their production has significantly slowed, but if they aren't laying at least 3 eggs a week they will join the meaties in freezer camp. And while I said that I respect those who plan to keep their chickens until natural death, I also think it's a little silly to keep chickens that are giving you nothing in return WHILE YOU ARE BUYING factory farmed chicken and battery eggs. Yes, you are being humane to your own chickens, but you are perpetuating a system that is NOT humane to thousands and thousands of birds each year. I think it is far more humane to give your own chickens a great life while they're here and respectfully retire them to the freezer when their production has dropped BECAUSE then you are not throwing money at the inhumane industrial farmers. It's the ultimate example of out of sight/out of mind thinking- you don't have to think about the inhumanely raised bird you're eating (or who laid the eggs you're eating), because you didn't know the awful conditions that bird was raised under, but you feel like you're being some huge humanitarian by NOT processing your own birds. In this respect the previous post (m.kitchengirl) is the most respectful post I read.

I'm just sayin'.

 

[Tikkijane]

m.kitchengirl :

As a local foods chef I have visited many farmers in the region & purchase farm raised meats exclusively. It gets VERY expensive, even with how little meat we eat.
I bought 6 hens in June. Mostly so my S.O. would let me get ducks. I never wanted chickens before & had a very cavalier attitude about the whole thing. I want to do meat birds, but wanted to make sure that I would enjoy husbandry and be a good owner, so I decided to start small this year.
I fell in love with the chickens. I read all the books and too many articles here before I got them and they are a fantastic pet. I tell all my friends they are the best 1st pet for kids, and I believe it.
To us, they have become pets. They all have names, but only answer to "Chicken Oh Chicken" (my ducks only answer to "Quackers" so I tell my S.O. "we only have two pets, not 12". If they had to be called individually they would be 12 pets. That is my chicken math.).
I bought 6 hens. Mostly because I was told some would die, and some could be roosters even if they were sold as hens.
Two are roosters. My favorite chicken is a rooster.
I don't have the time to add on to the coop and run, so I can't get 6 more hens to satisfy his "needs". Everyone says I need 10 hens to keep him from hurting the ladies. I wish I could do it, but we decided we wouldn't get into meat birds til next year.
That means this weekend I have to cull my favorite chicken, and the other rooster. I have thought through all my other options, but keep coming back to the same solution. If I post him on craigslist most likely he will be eaten, and who knows how humanely he will be treated before that happens, and during? If I house him with the girls he will overwork them & I will feel awful. I could send him elsewhere for processing but I love him too much to just drop him with a stranger & let them do it. He trusts me, runs to me first and is my buddy. If he is to be sacrificed I feel like it should be by my hand. I will be weeping the entire time. I may even puke. But I think I will sleep better that night than if I made any other choice.
When my hens stop laying well and the time comes to make room for the new gals I will keep any that are good broody hens, but I can't sustain freeloaders for too long. My property is not huge. It has a lot of good forage for the chickens but I don't think it could sustain more than a 25 or 30 birds total, and honestly, 30 birds sounds like an awful lot to me. I am not sure I could sustain that large of a flock.
I have to admit I regret my cavalier attitude when I started this. I thought I could remain objective, but I love animals too much. After months of thoughtful meditation I have decided that since I can't house my rooster(s) with the girls in a way I think would be humane for all that the most humane thing to do is slaughter them myself.
I have never killed anything. I was a vegetarian for 15 years, and we still only eat meat a few times a month. I slow down in the rain to try to avoid squashing frogs. I dread tomorrow morning more than anything, but sometimes what is right is really hard. I got into this to teach the kids where their food comes from, so the lessons begin. For all of us.

It's probably too late, but I personally would wait and see. That number may NOT be a problem for your roo. I would wait until you know for sure, because that will make your decision easier. My favorite also turned out to be a boy. It didn't take me too long to realize that he needed to be rehomed (you can post on your local freecycle and try to weed people out that way) and I felt a lot better after that point. My friend hung on to her roo for quite a while (he was her favorite, too) until she got to the point where she knew he had to go. She found a nice home for him (replacing an ooooooollllllddddd rooster) and he fit in just fine.

Good luck with whatever you decide!​

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Well stated and I agree!

It's all well and good to appear to be this big compassionate humanitarian with your own flock just because they have names and you raised them from a chick...but what about those poor orphans who have been exploited and had to live and die in horrible conditions? True compassion knows no boundaries, be it physical, mental or emotional.

I cull vigorously each year for laying and all birds must be laying every day or every other day in peak laying season. If not, they are repurposed for consumption. My base flock has hens from 6 years of age down to 1 year, with the 6 year olds laying daily or every other day without fail. If a hen is older, I may can her up and this yields very tender, flavorful meat for soups and other recipes. If not too old, I may marinate and BBQ with younger extra roo meat. Both have been good options for me.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Well stated and I agree!

It's all well and good to appear to be this big compassionate humanitarian with your own flock just because they have names and you raised them from a chick...but what about those poor orphans who have been exploited and had to live and die in horrible conditions? True compassion knows no boundaries, be it physical, mental or emotional.

I cull vigorously each year for laying and all birds must be laying every day or every other day in peak laying season. If not, they are repurposed for consumption. My base flock has hens from 6 years of age down to 1 year, with the 6 year olds laying daily or every other day without fail. If a hen is older, I may can her up and this yields very tender, flavorful meat for soups and other recipes. If not too old, I may marinate and BBQ with younger extra roo meat. Both have been good options for me.

Not necessarily or at least not in all cases. My chickens are my therapy. They give me plenty in return even if they aren't producing eggs or being used for meat. They give me a reason to push my ol' broken body to get outside and care for them each day and several of them are quite gentled and give me affection. They give me happiness as I watch them run around the farm. I'm fortunate to be in a position that I can always keep at least a few that are laying. As for my meat, I buy all our meat - beef, chicken and pork - from a free range and pastured farmer in our small town. If necessary I could buy eggs from another neighbor that always keeps somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 - 100 laying hens, free ranged.